


high-tide rising

by prouveyrac



Category: The Adventure Zone (Podcast)
Genre: Angst, Angst With A Side of Angst, M/M, a maplekeene take on fitzroy finding dendra's letter, this is maplekeene adjacent and angsty
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-07-26
Updated: 2020-07-26
Packaged: 2021-03-06 02:26:43
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,334
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25535818
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/prouveyrac/pseuds/prouveyrac
Summary: Fitzroy, instead, repeated himself word for word. “Were you ever going to tell me?”His tone was blank, his voice quiet, his face unreadable, but the letter in his hands said enough.(based off the prompt "Were you ever going to tell me?")
Relationships: Argo Keene/Sir Fitzroy Maplecourt, Maplekeene
Comments: 7
Kudos: 48





	high-tide rising

**Author's Note:**

> my friend sent this prompt to me on tumblr and the absolute angst of it was too powerful to resist :3
> 
> warnings: it's literally all angst

Falling for Fitzroy Maplecourt made Argo feel like he was plummeting into the sea.

Which he has done before. Once. Unintentionally, that is. 

( _Unintentional_ is how he wanted to describe everything about Fitzroy Maplecourt). 

It was a nasty storm, really. Unexpected, too. One of the worst he had seen since the... passing of his mother. When he watched the wave crest up over the bow of the ship, he knew it was going to hurt like hell when it crashed back down on him.

The true shock came when it washed him overboard and, for just a second, the world slowed to a halt as he watched the toiling, white-capped water approaching faster and faster as he descended.

And then, with a burning gush of salt water forcing it’s way down his throat as he crashed, the world began to turn again.

If falling for Fitzroy felt like hurdling towards the ocean, hearing Fitzroy’s first words to him as he walked into their common room felt like sea water filling his lungs.

“W-What?” he sputtered out, hoping that it would clear the burning from his throat (and that he misheard).

Fitzroy, instead, repeated himself word for word. “Were you ever going to tell me?” 

His tone was blank, his voice quiet, his face unreadable, but the letter in his hands said enough.

Fitzroy was silent after that, and Argo realized that the question wasn’t rhetorical.

“Listen, Fitz,” Argo began with no clue where he was going. “Just- listen, okay? It was for- a job, you know? For-”

“The Unbroken Chain.” Fitzroy’s voice wasn’t cold or hard, but lifeless. Perhaps that made it all worse. “I figured that.”

“Yeah!” Argo knew he was trying to overcompensate for Fitzroy with his own excitement, however fake it was, but he couldn’t just stand there while Fitzroy looked so- “That’s exactly it! They just- wanted to... to know some stuff and- and I was never going to let it go too far! I just needed-”

“Go too _far?”_ Fitzroy repeated and he finally looked at Argo, finally sounded like more than just a husk. The pain on his face and the incredulity in his voice, though... Argo didn’t think he could handle- “You... you sent a _letter_ to my family!”

“I wasn’t- I wasn’t going to do anything with it!” Argo defended, fumbled, lied.

The Unbroken Chain already knew everything.

The way Fitzroy’s eyes never left his own made it clear that he knew Argo was lying, too.

Thus, Argo sighed and shook his head, pushing back the loose hairs of his ponytail. “Or we’re- we’re not going to do anything _more_ with it.”

Fitzroy’s bottom lip trembled as he crumpled the letter in his hand. “You betrayed me.”

“Fitz, please!” Argo pleaded, putting his hands up as he walked closer to Fitzroy. Fitzroy took a step back. “It was just- it was a job! I needed to do it! I pledged myself loyal to them, and-”

“What do _you_ know about loyalty?” Fitzroy snapped. Argo flinched, but he couldn’t tell if it was from his words or the anguish that coated them. “We- we were supposed to be... be _friends!_ We were supposed to trust each other!”

“Well you haven’t always shown me trust!” Argo snapped back, and he knew he was getting unfairly angry, unfairly defensive, but he didn’t want to go down in this ship without Fitzroy.

Didn’t want to go _anywhere_ without Fitzroy.

“And this is exactly why!” Fitzroy kicked the crumpled up letter towards him. “You- you went behind my back! This is from _weeks_ ago! And- And I don’t even want to know how you _found_ my home address!”

Argo shook his head and kept trying to swim to the surface. “Fitzroy, it- it doesn’t matter now! The Unbroken Chain... they were never going to harm you! They just- just wanted to make sure that you were _okay!_ And we’re on your side now and-”

_“Now?”_ Argo felt like he was going to choke on the despair in Fitzroy’s voice. _“Now_ you’re on my side? Now, after we’ve been- _roommates_ for months? Now, after we’ve been working together? Now, after I almost died with you at my side? _Now_ you’re on Team Maplecourt?”

Argo shook his head. “That- That isn’t what I meant! The Unbroken Chain- we can all trust each other! No more sneaking around! Just- just trust now!”

“That isn’t possible anymore, Argo!” Fitzroy shouted. “You _lied,_ Argo! Every time you saw me, you _knew_ the truth! You knew that you went behind my back, that you lied to my _mother,_ and you let it happen! You continued facing me every- every _fucking_ day like you hadn’t found out everything! Where’s the trust in that, Argo? Where’s the good, fun comraderie you always preach?”

Argo winced with every word out of his mouth until he believed his heart couldn’t handle it anymore. “Fitzroy, I- if you believe anything I say, believe it when I say that I didn’t want it to come to this!”

Fitzroy threw his hands up. “But _you_ let it! You did the research! You sent the letter! You- you found out _everything_ that I have _deliberately chosen_ to keep hidden!” 

“But you could’ve always been honest with us! You could’ve told us that and- and we would’ve been fine with you! You don’t need to be some fancy guy, you can be you! You can be _the_ Fitzroy Maplecourt, and-”

“This _is_ Fitzroy Maplecourt!” Fitzroy shouted, stomping his foot. _“This_ is Fitzroy Maplecourt after he learned what would get him liked! _This_ is Fitzroy Maplecourt who people accept! _This_ is Fitzroy Maplecourt who survived! _This_ is Fitzroy Maplecourt, Knight in Absentia to the Realm of Goodcastle, and _you_ don’t get to decide when I can finally be the man who doesn’t exist anymore!”

The silence that filled the room made Argo feel like he already drowned.

He didn’t know what to say.

“You never answered my question,” Fitzroy, exhausted, whispered. “Were you ever going to tell me?”

He didn’t know what to say.

“I- I-” Argo, faltering, sighed and shrugged. “I don’t know. I... knew I was gonna have to some day. That it would... come up.” He weakly motioned to the letter. “But I didn’t... want to. At first, I was terrified. That you would find out. But...” He swallowed thickly, looking down. “Time passed and I... we were getting close, so I thought it would go away. Wouldn’t... matter anymore. I thought maybe, just maybe, we could of... had something, so I hoped this whole situation would just... go away.”

“I thought we could have, too.”

Argo looked up, his eyes wide.

The cold, hard look Fitzroy was giving him was the last thing he wanted in this situation. Was the last thing he wanted in all the times he dreamed of finally seeing what this “something” could have been.

“Fitzroy,” Argo tried again, and couldn’t even think of something to follow up with.

“I don’t feel things for people easily, Argo,” Fitzroy said, walking closer to him. “Years of keeping people at bay so they don’t look too closely could do that to a guy. But, for once, I finally thought: here’s my chance. We’ve had our ups and downs, and yet we’re still here, ‘coming back to each other,’ you could say. We’ve even had our fair shares of brushes with death and have still come back, and that felt like a big enough sign. So, I finally thought: _here_ is my opportunity to be comfortable at a pace that I’ve never been given before, in a skin that maybe I can learn to live with.”

And then Fitzroy was right on top of him, looking down at him over the bridge of his nose.

“Leave it to a rogue to steal that opportunity away from me.”

And then Fitzroy kept walking.

Argo was still standing motionless, floating in a sea that raged around him, when Fitzroy slammed the door behind him.

**Author's Note:**

> thank you for reading!!!!! :D
> 
> ohsweetflips.tumblr.com


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